Last year, an Indian naval fleet led by the aircraft carrier INS Viraat was steaming into the Persian Gulf when its radios crackled, "What are you doing here?" It was a US-led coalition warship on patrol off Iraq. The Indian fleet commander shot back, "Pray, what are you doing here? I'm only 500 miles from my coast."

GOOD TIDINGS: Shivalik being launched

The repartee that underscored the fact that the Arabian Sea and the Persian Gulf are India's backyard came from the confidence that the world's fifth largest force is now a well-oiled machine. Its warships can go to sea combat-ready in less than 12 hours and combine both eastern and western fleets in less than 48. This, after valuable lessons were learnt during Operation Parakram last year, the largest in its history, when naval aircraft, warships and submarines wheeled around the coast of Oman and Gujarat ready to deliver a seaborne left hook to Pakistan.

But what has gone unnoticed is its subtler role as an instrument of state policy. If the US sees the immediate future of Indo-US military relations in the naval sphere, it has to do with the Indian Navy's role in Operation Enduring Freedom last year when its warships escorted US Navy ships and tankers from the north Arabian Sea to the Malacca Straits, its most active military cooperation with the US. Five years ago, none of this would have been possible. The force was in the grip of what navy chief Admiral Madhvendra Singh calls the "lost decade". Strategic myopia and dwindling budgetary support led to a stagnation in capabilities and force levels, with only three warships ordered since 1986. Now, the emerging geopolitics has begun what can only be called the navy's decade. "The Iraq war has shown the vital role the navy can play in modern warfare," said Defence Minister George Fernandes before the launch of the Shivalik, India's first indigenously built Stealth frigate, on April 18.

This year, the Government has decided to pay more to police its strategic space, extending from the Persian Gulf -fount of 70 per cent of India's energy needs-to the Malacca Straits. The current defence budget gives the navy an unprecedented Rs 5,000 crore, a 200 per cent increase over last year, to buy new warships. It will be used to fund the construction of modern warships like the Rs 2,000-crore Shivalik, the first to be launched in nearly a decade, and sister ships Satpura and Sahyadri.

IN THE DOCK: INS Viraat is set to retire in six years

"If the end of the Cold War has shifted the world's maritime focus from the Atlantic-Pacific to the Pacific-Indian, then the world post-9/11 has made the Indian Ocean and north Arabian Sea more animated, with the US, France, Japan and China having interests here," says Commodore C. Uday Bhaskar, deputy director, Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, Delhi. So the navy has retitled goodwill cruises to foreign ports as "long-range deployments", because, says a senior naval officer, "they are future areas of operation in India's strategic interests".

But long-range deployments need long legs, and Bhaskar explains the need for big ships: "Sustainability multiplied by reach equals presence." So construction plans for missile boats and corvettes-warships smaller than 1,200 tonne-have been frozen in favour of principal surface combatants (PSC), warships bigger than 2,000 tonne. Amidst this unprecedented burst of construction and acquisition, budgetary allocations are set to mirror a growing economy, increasing from 18 per cent at present to 30 per cent in the next few years. "The navy is firmly steering a course to achieve blue water capability by 2010 with twin carrier battle groups and a fleet of nuclear submarines," says Vice-Admiral Premvir S. Das, former eastern naval commander.

The bulk of the navy's new funds will be used to purchase and refit Admiral Gorshkov, the long overdue replacement for INS Vikrant. Versatile jet aircraft like the MIGs in the class of carrier-borne F-18s will help the fleet defend itself from enemy aircraft and also strike land targets. Escorting the Gorshkov, which will join the navy after a three-year modification in Russia, will be destroyers, frigates and submarines. This will kickstart a massive shipbuilding programme. which will give the navy one major warship every 18 months.

TOP GUNS: India is set to build six more Delhi-class destroyers

The Mazagon Docks Ltd (MDL) in Mumbai will soon start building six destroyers of the Project 15A and B series, the larger, modified versions of the 6,700-tonne Delhi-class destroyers bristling with the Brahmos supersonic cruise missiles. The MDL's dormant East Yard is also readying to build six Scorpene-class French submarines. Later this year, the Cochin Shipyard Ltd will lay down the keel for the Air Defence Ship, a 40,000-tonne aircraft carrier that will replace the Viraat in six years. The Indian crew will also sail home later this year with the Talwar, Trishul and Tabar-the new-generation Krivak-class frigates ordered from Russia five years ago. Equipped with tactical cruise missiles and AEW helicopters like the Ka-31, they will sharpen the edge of the western fleet.

The new programme focuses on replacing retiring warships and acquiring new capabilities with longer range cruise missiles such as the Klub and Brahmos, with a gradual emphasis on hitting land targets. The Krivak-class warships will be the first PSCs capable of carrying out limited land attacks with Klub missiles.

Two other deals will give the navy strategic legs, including four Tu-22M3 maritime reconnaissance and strike aircraft with a 7,000-km reach well into the Indian Ocean. The lease of two Akula (shark)-class nuclear submarines from Russia will give naval personnel expertise for the under-construction Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV), a euphemism for a nuclear submarine. Being built at Vizag, the ATV is expected to enter service in three years. Armed with 700-km-range IRBMS and long-range indigenous cruise missiles based on the Brahmos, the submarine will complete the land-air-sea triad of India's nuclear deterrent. Missile-armed nuclear submarines are vital for a second strike or for inflicting damage on the adversary in case of a second strike because unlike land-based launchers they are practically undetectable and can prowl under sea almost indefinitely. The new fleet, including the carriers and nuclear submarines, will be housed in Karwar, south of Goa, where piers and jetties are being built for Seabird, Asia's largest naval base and the Indian Navy's blue-water redoubt.

What immediate threats does the navy face? None, if one goes by the maxim that navies aren't predicated on immediate threats. But looming large is China's strategic surge into the Indian Ocean. It is not only looking at alternative routes to the Gulf oil but also bases from where it can sit astride the energy trade routes through which over 60 per cent of its west Asian oil imports pass. It cemented relations with Saudi Arabia through the transfer of long-range Dong Feng missiles in the late 1980s, and last year, began constructing Gwadar port in Pakistan's Baluchistan province. The west coast of Myanmar has already been turned into China's naval frontier against India. It has also taken long leases on Coco Islands, where electronic surveillance posts eavesdrop on Indian missile tests, and Hangyyi island and Sittwe, close to Kolkata, whose naval facilities are being modernised with warships to provide it direct access into the Indian Ocean. With Russian help, China has begun modernising its ragtag coastal navy with potent Sovremenny-class destroyers armed with supersonic missiles and kilo-class submarines.

India's formation of the Andaman and Nicobar tri-services command and long-range deployments to the South China Sea are being seen as a tacit response to Beijing's intrusion into India's sphere of influence. So the next time a Chinese warship enters the Indian Ocean, it might well be the Indian Navy conducting the interrogation.